Orion Gives NASA and Houston a Means
to Fly, a Cause for Hope (Source: Houston Chronicle)
On Thursday, NASA plans to blast Orion 3,600 miles into space. It will
then make a fiery fall back to Earth at 20,000 mph before splashing
down in the Pacific Ocean. It’s just a test flight. No astronauts will
be on board, and none will climb into Orion any time soon. But this
mission offers NASA and engineers an achievement they desperately need.

The last dozen years have been especially cruel for Johnson Space
Center. The loss of the shuttle Columbia in 2003 shook the nation’s
faith in human spaceflight. Seven years later, President Obama canceled
Constellation, NASA’s troubled exploration program. Finally, in 2011,
the shuttles stopped flying entirely. Orion could ignite NASA’s effort
to reach for Mars, with humans on board. Click here.
(11/30)

Rocky Man with Spaceport Plan Could
Fly North with Proposal (Source: CQ News)
The man with the spaceport plan for Rockhampton is threatening to take
his proposals to Townsville if he doesn't get much local interest.
Former Rockhampton man John Moody earlier this month proposed to build
a $45 million spaceport, which could horizontally launch spacecrafts
like the XCOR Lynx from Rockhampton Airport.

Mr Moody, who now lives in Brisbane, said space experts had flagged the
city as one of the most ideal locations in Australia for a spacecraft
terminal. He also proposed a 457m-extension of the existing runway,
which accounted for a large portion of the cost. However after a recent
trip to the United States Mr Moody discovered he could cut the cost of
the proposed spaceport to almost a quarter of the original at $12.5
million.

He said after he spoke with USA spacecraft industry leaders, including
XCOR president Andrew Nelson, he realised he didn't need to extend the
existing runway as he first thought. When he returned from the USA, Mr.
Moody met with state government chief economist Steve Kanowski and
State Development, Infrastructure and Planning advisor Greg Fahey. He
claimed they said to him "run with it, it's a fantastic idea... now is
the time to build the spaceport". (11/30)

After Wrangle, Europe Set to Approve
Ariane 6 Launcher (Source: Rappler)
After a two-year debate sparked by the emergence of low-cost
competition, European space nations on Tuesday, December 2, are likely
to back plans to build a new rocket, the Ariane 6, say sources.
Intended to be ready for 2020, the rocket will replace the Ariane 5,
taking its place alongside the lightweight Vega and Russia's veteran
Soyuz at the European Space Agency (ESA) base in Kourou, French Guiana.

A medium to heavy launcher that traces its roots to 1985, the Ariane 5
has 62 successful operations to its name and accounts for more than
half of the world's commercial launch market. According to ESA, it has
generated "direct economic benefits" in Europe of 50 billion euros
($125 billion). But the workhorse of space also carries hefty costs –
and now finds itself flanked by nimble US commercial competitors such
as SpaceX. (11/30)

ISRO to Test-Drop Crew Module in
December (Source: Deccan Chronicle)
Aiming to start a manned space mission, the ISRO will launch the GSLV
Mk-III in the second week of December to study its performance and
carry out a crew module recovery experiment through it. The 630-tonne
launch vehicle, designated as LVM3-X, will carry CARE (Crew Module
Atmospheric Reentry Experiment) weighing about 3.65 tonnes. ISRO
intends to study the impact of heat on the crew module when it enters
the earth atmosphere. (11/30)

India to Test-Launch Advanced Rocket
in December (Source: Hindustan Times)
ISRO will test launch India's souped-up rocket - GSLV Mark III - from
Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh between December 15 and 20 to test the
atmospheric stability of the launch vehicle. Once ISRO masters heavier
launch vehicles capable of putting four tonne satellites into orbit,
India will not have to depend on France to put its bigger satellites
into orbit and save precious foreign exchange, besides getting more
business. (11/30)

Editorial: NASA Needs to Add Some
"Weight" to Spaceflight (Source: SpaceFlight Insider)
It has long been known that microgravity takes a toll on the human
body. Muscles atrophy, the eyes are subjected to increased intracranial
pressure, bones lose mass. A prolonged period in weightlessness may
result in permanent bone loss and make it difficult to survive in
Earth’s gravity. Yet although a number of plans have been proposed for
artificial gravity in deep space missions, NASA, at present, does not
appear to have plans to use artificial gravity on a mission to Mars.
Click here.
(11/30)

Service Module of China's Returned
Lunar Orbiter Reaches L2 Point (Source: Xinhua)
The service module belonging to China's unmanned lunar orbiter has
reached the Earth-Moon second Lagrange Point (L2), the State
Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense
said Saturday. As of Friday, the service module had been flying for 28
days, and was 421,000 kilometers away from Earth and 63,000 km from the
moon. All experiments are going well. (11/29)

Philae's On a Comet, Hayabusa2 To an
Asteroid -- What's the Difference? (Source: Space Policy Online)
Robotic space science missions to comets and asteroids are in the news
right now because of Europe's Rosetta/Philae mission to Comet 67P and
Japan's imminent launch of Hayabusa2 to an asteroid. Many
may wonder what the difference is between comets and asteroids and what
other spacecraft have investigated them. Click here.
(11/29)

First Rocket Landing in Space Coast
History Could Happen in Weeks (Source: WESH)
Never mind rocket launches -- the first rocket landing in Space Coast
history is a couple of weeks away, if things work out. SpaceX is
expected to announce this week that the company is bringing in a
revolutionary ocean-going landing pad for its next launch. In a Cape
Canaveral hangar is a powerful Falcon 9 rocket, set for launch on Dec.
16. In the Gulf, ready to head for the Cape, is the ocean-going landing
pad for the rocket, a converted oil-drilling barge. (11/28)

S3 to Offer Zero-Gravity Flights
(Source: Nugget)
Sports tourism has been eclipsed by something a little more
interstellar. That's right – a space tourism attraction is coming to
the city in 2015, offing the public the chance to float in zero
gravity. Swiss Space Systems (S3) announced Friday it will be offering
zero-gravity flights out of North Bay next year aboard a modified
Airbus 340 that will allow passengers to experience weightlessness.

Although passengers won't actually be going into space, Feierbach said
the plane will perform a series of parabolas at 30,000 feet to achieve
about 25 seconds of zero gravity each time. “They will get to
experience what an astronaut would feel,” said Robert Feierback, noting
such flights are used for space travel training. He said the flight
packages, which will range in price from $2,800 to $7,000, are the
first of their kind in Canada and the most inexpensive in the world.

Editor's Note:
S3 recently opened an office in Florida at the Cape Canaveral
Spaceport, in anticipation of future parabolic flight and orbital space
launches. Their office is at the state-owned Space Life Sciences Lab
outside the gates of Kennedy Space Center. (11/28)

Why We Should Mine the Moon
(Source: The Conversation)
To date, all human economic activity has depended on the material and
energy resources of a single planet; understandably, perhaps. It is
conceivable though that future advances in space exploration could
change this by opening our closed planetary economy to essentially
unlimited external resources of energy and raw materials.

Look up at the Moon this evening, and you might be gazing at a
solution. The Earth’s closest celestial neighbour seems likely to play
a major role and already a number of private companies have been
created to explore the possibilities. as a result of work over the past
four decades, we do now know enough to make a first-order assessment of
lunar resource potential. In doing so it is useful to distinguish
between three possible future applications of such resources. Click here.
(11/28)

Russian Space System of Ten Satellites
to be Organized by 2018 (Source: Itar-Tass)
By 2018, Russia will have a unified space system of ten satellites,
where the first satellite will be launched in 2015, Deputy Commander of
the Aerospace Defence Major General Anatoly Nestechuk said in an
interview with the Echo of Moscow radio station on Saturday.

Earlier, Russia’s Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said with the new
unified space system Russia will be aware of launches of present and
promising ballistic missiles across the world. He said the new system
would replace the missile attack warning means, which were designed
back in the Soviet times. (11/29)

Astronaut Abby Invited to Orion Launch
(Source: KARE)
As NASA's next spaceship is about to make an historic debut, a
Minneapolis teenager will have a front row seat. An unmanned Orion
spacecraft will launch from Florida's coast on Dec. 4. Abigail
Harrison, 17, will be watching closely. The South High student, better
known to the masses as "Astronaut Abby," was invited to report live
from the Orion launch. The aspiring astronaut has become well known for
her mission to be the first person to walk on Mars in 2030. (11/29)